Defendant Slashed Victim’s Throat, Inflicting Near-Fatal Injury
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Manhattan man has
been charged with Attempted Murder and other crimes for slashing the throat of a fellow
Rikers Island inmate, causing a life-threatening injury.
District Attorney Clark said “The defendant allegedly slashed the inmate’s throat,
inflicting a wound that nearly caused the victim’s death. We will prosecute such vicious
attacks to the fullest extent to eradicate inmate-on-inmate violence, and all violence, in Rikers
Island jails.”
District Attorney Clark said that the defendant, Shawn Young, 32, of 2363 Seventh
Ave., Manhattan, has been charged with second-degree Attempted Murder, first- and third degree
Assault, three counts of second-degree Assault, first- and second-degree Promoting
Prison Contraband and fourth-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon. He was arraigned
today before Deputy Administrative Bronx Supreme Court Justice Eugene Oliver, who set bail
at $50,000. Young is due back in court on March 27, 2017 and faces up 25 years in prison if
convicted of the top charge.
According to the investigation, on September 9, 2016, Young was involved in an
altercation with another inmate in an intake cell at the Anna M. Kross Center, and slashed the
inmate’s throat with a sharp metal object. He required surgery at Bellevue Hospital.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez of the
Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, under the supervision of Sonya Tennell, Supervisor of the
Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, James Brennan, Deputy Chief of the Rikers Island
Prosecution Bureau, and Deanna G. Logan, Chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau,
under the overall supervision of Stuart Levy, Deputy Chief of the Investigations Division, and
Jean T. Walsh, Chief of the Investigations Division.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.
